


The Toymaker’s Son

by Canaryhowl



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Winn Schott Jr., Multiverse, Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover Event (CW DC TV Universe), Toyman Jr., Winn Schott Jr. Angst, Winn Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:33:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22424131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canaryhowl/pseuds/Canaryhowl
Summary: After the crisis, Winn wakes up in an unfamiliar hospital room, in an unfamiliar Metropolis. Something went wrong when the multiverse rebooted, and our Earth 38 Winn, who was meant to be merged into Earth Prime, ends up on a very different Earth, taking the place of his eccentric doppleganger. But Winn’s doppleganger may moonlight as a child-murdering serial killer—or a supervillain—or both? And Winn is forced to play along.The evil doppleganger? Now on Earth Prime.Inspired by Winn’s return to Supergirl.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Winn jerked awake. Everything hurt, from his chest to his arms to his head. He really should go to the infirmary and spend some time in the healing chamber. That was one of the benefits of living in the 31st century after all. He groaned, and realized that there was a tube shoved down his throat. He struggled to breathe around it, but his panicked breaths only made him pant harder and struggle even more. He swung his arm out, and it hit limply against the bars attached to his bed. He did not have bars on his bed.

“Good, you’re awake,” a gentle voice said. “You were intubated to help you breathe. I’m going to remove the tube, but I need you to cough. Blink once if you understand.”

Winn blinked once, and the nurse pulled the tube out in a swift motion. It was only then that the situation truly hit Winn. It smelled strongly of antiseptics in the room. A heart monitor beeped steadily next to him. This was 21st century technology. This was a 21st century hospital.

“Where...” Winn cursed his weak, raspy voice. He cleared his throat and started again. “Where am I?”

“You’re at Metropolis General. You were in a car accident. You had some internal bleeding, but you had surgery and everything looks fine now. The doctor will come to check on you, and with a clean bill of health, I expect you will be released within the next few days, Mr. Schott.”

“Ah, thank you,” Winn mustered.

“Do you have any questions for me?” the nurse asked.

“Not right now,” Winn replied. He did have questions, but most of them revolved around how he ended up back in the 21st century, or in a car accident, or in Metropolis at all for that matter.

After the nurse left, Winn felt his head sink deep into his pillow as sleep overtook him.

When he next woke up, a woman in a lab coat seemed to be glaring at the monitors next to Winn’s bed.

“Hi,” Winn said.

“Hi, Mr. Schott, I’m Dr. Frank,” the woman said.

“You can call me Winn.”

Dr. Frank seemed to do a double take, making eye contact with Winn, then frowning at the chart in her hands, then looking at Winn again, and then back to the chart.

“Oh, I think that maybe I’m in the wrong room,” Dr. Frank said. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the chart. She left the room momentarily, and then came back in and rotated Winn’s hospital bracelet until the ‘Schott’ was clearly visible. She pursed her lips, appearing baffled.

“Could you please tell me your full name, Winn?”

Winn groaned. There was nothing he hated more than saying his full name aloud. It triggered a deep fear in him that he was only a ‘junior’ away from his father. And, of course, there was the more immediate fear someone would make the connection between him and Senior. All it took was someone remembering the name Winslow Schott, Sr.

He cleared his throat. “Winslow Schott, Jr,” he said. If ever there was a time to quit the angst and admit his full name, it was while he was laid up in a hospital bed having woken up in a different century than the one he last remembered being in.

The doctor nodded and didn’t wince or recoil, so Winn breathed a sigh of relief. But the look of confusion remained on the doctor’s face, and a sense of unease was beginning to rise in Winn’s stomach.

“Huh,” she said, “I’m going to get the nurse to hopefully clear this up.”

She disappeared out the door, and Winn used the alone time to assess his injuries. Even in the short time he’d been out (or at least what he’d perceived as a short time) between the nurse’s visit and the doctor’s he felt a lot better. What had been sharp pain had dulled into aches.

He felt for a moment like he might fall asleep again, but that feeling washed away when the doctor came back in followed closely behind by the nurse from earlier.

“Maybe it’s a middle name or a nickname. Especially if he’s a ‘Junior’,” the nurse was saying, shaking her head.

“Could be, or there could have been a mix up between two people with the same last name,” the doctor replied, hesitation in her voice. “Show me the driver’s license.”

The nurse nodded, and shuffled through the drawer next to Winn. She produced a wallet and from that wallet, she pulled a driver’s license. She handed it to Dr. Frank.

Dr. Frank examined the small plastic card like it was a particularly troubling lab result. She held close to her face, squinted at it, and then held it so she could see both the image on the card and the increasingly concerned expression on Winn’s face.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Do you mind tell me again what your full name is?”

Winn gulped. Had they made the connection? Was that why they were acting so strangely? “Um, sure. Winslow Schott, Jr.”

Dr. Frank frowned. She handed Winn the driver’s license, and Winn finally got to see the source of all the confusion. It was an ID Winn had never seen before. It was a Metropolis driver’s license, and Winn had never lived in Metropolis. The man pictured in the license was certainly Winn, or at least so identical to Winn they would be mistaken as twins if they appeared in the same room together. But his name...

“Anton Schott?” Winn said. The name felt weird on his lips. It was almost familiar, like he had heard it whispered in a dream, but it felt wrong. He didn’t know any Schott cousins, let alone any that would look exactly like him. That left...a doppleganger?

The idea made him smile. He always felt left out when Supergirl would run off to fight in a crossover in another universe. A multiversal adventure had been just behind time travel on his bucket list, and now he was going to be able to strike off not only number one but number two as well. But why would Winn have his multiversal counterpart’s driver’s license?

Winn’s smile only served to make the doctor more concerned as she reached into her lab coat pocket for a pen light.

“Oh, wow, that blow to my head must have been harder than I thought,” Winn said, chuckling. “How could I forget my own name? Yes, Anton, that’s me. Anton Schott. That’s my name.”

Dr. Frank and the nurse were staring at Winn as if he had grown another head or had declared that Bruce Wayne was really Batman or something as ridiculous as that.

Winn commiserated. It would be weirder if they didn’t think he was insane at that moment.

Dr. Frank coughed lightly. “Er, Anton... You didn’t suffer any head injury, and you passed the neurological exam completely.” She turned to the nurse. “Maybe we should get a psych consult in here. Mr. Schott seems confused.”

“No, it’s just that I, um, legally changed my name because my dad—you know, Senior—is in prison, but I’m so used to what my name was that I usually go by Winn.”

The doctor nodded empathetically, seemingly appeased. “Oh, that must be tough,” she said. “Well, Anton—er, Winn—it’s looking like you can be released tomorrow.”

She smiled, and Winn mirrored it back to her. Inside, he still felt uneasy.

* * *

Winn stared at the address on the driver’s license. It was strange. He didn’t know exactly what was going on. For all he knew, he and this Anton had switched places. Anton could be on his Earth hanging out with Supergirl or even in the 31st century with the Legion. And who knew what Anton was like. Maybe this was an Earth where Junior took more closely after Senior, or even one where Senior wasn’t Toyman. Who knew if this Earth had superheroes or supervillains at all.

He entered Anton’s building and approached the apartment number listed on the license, pausing outside the door. For all Winn knew, Anton was in there, holding a toy gun that was really a real gun up to the door, ready to shoot anyone who entered. But then again, Winn had Anton’s wallet, his driver’s license, and his apartment keys.

Winn drew in a breath and pushed open the door.

He was not expecting what he found inside.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winn discovers something unsettling about his doppleganger, and vice versa.

Chapter 2

_Winn - Earth ??_

The address may have been different, but Anton’s apartment looked almost exactly like Winn’s own on the inside. They had the same sofa, the same TV, even the same action figures sitting next to the same books on an identical book shelf. Winn opened the bedroom door, and once again found an eerily familiar setup down to the exact same bedspread adorning the bed. For a moment, Winn considered whether he might actually be Anton and the doctors had been mistaken about the lack of head injury. But then Winn opened the closet door.

It was essentially a large walk-in closet mixed with a small office. On the opposite end from where Winn was standing, there was a desk with computer and several open books stacked one on top of the other. Child-sized dolls lined three walls, staring with creepy button eyes. In the center of the closet, directly in front of Winn, was a chair straight out of a dentist office, but with the added bonus of restraints where the wrists and ankles would go. The tools hanging from the chair would also not be found at any dentist’s office Winn knew—the saw, axes, and scalpels looked more like they could be found in Frankenstein’s lab.

He held his breath as he moved toward the desk. He stayed as far away as possible from the torture chair as he could in the small space but knocked into a large pair of scissors in the process. The books were anatomy books, save for the bottom-most one—a crocheting book. Winn clenched his jaw and placed the books back in the same order he found them, as if Anton might appear behind him at any second and dissect him for intruding.

Winn wanted nothing more than to run out of the closet and the apartment and forget he ever found this place. But as he turned toward the closet door, curiosity overcame him and he leaned towards one of the dolls to take a closer look.

It looked like a child-sized rag doll, with button eyes and a sewed shut mouth, but instead of yarn hair, its hair was decidedly human-like.

Winn tilted his head as he examined the doll, still not touching it. Unfortunately, the doll tilted its head too. It was at that moment, Winn realized that it was not a child-sized rag doll so much as a rag doll that was once a child.

Winn opened his mouth and let out what amounted to a silent scream.

_Anton - Earth Prime_

When Anton woke up, it was not in a bed, but slumped forward on a chair, propped up by the desk in front of him. A raging headache pounded through his skull, but it only took him a moment to realize he had no clue where he was. His instincts told him to run, but his more analytical side told him that it appeared he was in some kind of government office and it would be foolish to run.

Instead, he lifted his head off the desk and looked around. The symbol on the floor indicated that this was the headquarters of the DEO or Department of Extranormal Operations, whatever that meant. And Anton’s own outfit indicated that he worked there.

“Winn?!” a voice shouted in such an excited voice that Anton turned to look even though he didn’t care. It was a good thing he looked, because a familiar-looking figure was barreling toward him at what was not quite superspeed but was faster than what most humans were capable of.

He stared with a mixture of shock and confusion as Supergirl—or what appeared to be an older version of her—dashed toward him and enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug.

After a few moments of possibly the least expected hug of Anton’s lifetime, Supergirl let go. She pouted and then scowled as he continued to stare in bewilderment, which was apparently not the reaction she was expecting.

“Winn?” she said.

“Allow me,” said a deeper voice, J’onn J’onzz, as he shoved a hand onto Anton’s face.

Anton was too stunned to react, but as a wave of images and memories flooded through him, he understood. As he had always suspected, there had been a multiverse of infinite other Earths, but now they had been destroyed and combined into one Earth. It seemed that this “Winn” was a counterpart from another Earth and the one that they had all expected to emerge as this new universe’s version of himself. Instead, they got Anton.

Interestingly enough, it seemed that Anton and this Winn had very similar childhoods. Similar young adulthoods too. The strangest feeling was that Anton could pinpoint the exact moment their lives diverged. It was the moment his father, Winslow Schott, forced him to kill the business rival who had ruined everything, Chester Dunholtz, in front of an entire crowd of Toy Con-goers. Anton resisted, but he did it. He had no other choice. And it had felt good.

Maybe it all boiled down to Supergirl. Anton didn’t know Supergirl, not personally at least. On his Earth, which seemed to have been destroyed, she had been a teenager. Other than that, everything seemed so eerily similar.

Anton had worked at CatCo just like Winn, but Cat Grant had turned on him soon after finding out his parentage, first forcing him into giving an interview and then firing him on the spot after dear old dad had retaliated by attacking CatCo’s headquarters. She said that she liked Anton but that his presence put everyone in danger. Anton had always wanted to expose Cat Grant for what she really was.

Anton smirked. This all presented an interesting opportunity. His counterpart seemed to have been a genuinely kind and good person who was respected by his colleagues and superheroes, including Supergirl herself.

Now, Anton had a choice. He could take on Winn’s life at the DEO and support Supergirl, or continue his less honorable life as the Dollmaker. He settled on doing both.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winn is starting to process this new Earth when a Flash foe pays him a surprise visit.
> 
> Anton goes looking for his precious Cat at CatCo and finds Kara instead.

Chapter 3

_Winn - Earth ??_

When Winn woke next, he was lying in a familiar bed in an unfamiliar room. He felt disoriented for a moment. He couldn’t remember falling asleep. In fact, the last thing he remembered was seeing a creepy doll with button eyes straight out of a twisted nightmare. It had been such a distinctly disturbing dream, the kind that made him reconsider whether it was worth going to sleep at all. It reminded him of the kinds of dreams he had as a kid, the ones that kept him up at night lying in bed his first nights in a new foster home. There were other nightmares too. The worst were the ones where his father came for him at night to take him away. Still worse were the ones where his father came and Winn would beg him to take him with him.

He shot up in bed. He was wearing pajamas instead of the t-shirt and jeans he’d been wearing when left the hospital. The pajamas were his exact size, which made him feel even worse somehow.

Groaning, Winn rolled out of bed. He eyed the closet door. It was shut, but just the thought of what he’d seen behind those doors made him shudder as goosebumps crawled up and down his skin. It had been such a vivid nightmare. And it was strangely familiar, like he’d had it before. He closed his eyes, bracing himself, but the darkness only made his imagination conjure up button eyes and sewed-up faces.

He opened his eyes and ran toward the closest door, wrenching it open. He half-expected to see a creepy toy workshop/torture chamber inside, but instead was greeted with the sight of a closet full of cardigans, corduroys and khaki pants. He shut the closet doors immediately and then pulled them open once again, as if expecting to catch the closet in some kind of lie. Again, it was full of cardigans and neatly pressed pants.

He reached out and touched a cardigan. It felt real—and soft, just how he liked it. He held it in his hand for a moment before heading to the bathroom. It was strange, taking a shower in his doppleganger’s familiar-yet-unfamiliar apartment. It felt like he was staking a claim, making it his own, when really he wanted nothing more than to be back at Earth 18 and in the 31st century.

After showering and putting on a fresh button down shirt, cardigan, and corduroys combo, a refreshed Winn decided to make breakfast. But when he smelled pancakes cooking from the other room, he paused, wondering if Anton could have a girlfriend. Nothing about the apartment made it seem like someone else lived there or even spent much time there. Maybe a kindly chef lived next door and occasionally came over to cook for Anton. Or maybe the smell was just wafting through from another apartment.

Winn breathed in the smell of fresh pancakes, unsure how well he could pass for Anton but certain that he would have to interact with Anton’s friends and acquaintances and some point, and pulled the door open to the living room. Around the corner, in the kitchen, a slight figure with sandy blond hair was using a spatula to separate a pancake from the griddle.

“Good morning,” Winn greeted after a moment’s hesitation.

The figure turned, revealing a rag doll with blue button eyes, human hair, and human hands.

Winn wished he could go back to thinking it was all a nightmare.

He flinched away. The boy put down the pancakes and looked at Winn with concern out of very blue, very human eyes. Winn looked again and saw not a rag doll but a thirteen year old boy with delicate features and sandy hair. Something about the boy seemed familiar, but Winn couldn’t place it. Winn didn’t really know any kids that age, and his brain didn’t seem to be functioning at 100% anyway. Maybe he could go back to the hospital and request a redo on the neurological exam.

Winn rubbed his forehead. He was leaning his full weight on the kitchen table, and the kid who was definitely not a rag doll was helping him into a chair.

“Anton, are you okay? You seem really out of it.”

Winn resisted the urge to say, ‘I’m Winn, what’s your name,’ which seemed like the right thing to do when meeting someone first time but the wrong thing to do when you’re supposed to be your doppleganger who has a completely different name and who also knows the person you’re talking to.

Winn settled for a lie of omission. “I was in the hospital yesterday.”

“What happened?”

Winn realized he had no clue. He couldn’t even remember if he’d asked at the hospital, which struck him as a bizarre oversight. “I was hit by a car or something.”

“Or something?” The kid echoed back.

It was only when Winn retreated into the bedroom for some space that he realized it was very strange that a grown man like Anton would have a young kid cook him breakfast like that. At the moment, Winn was so relieved that the kid wasn’t a human rag doll that everything else had seemed very normal and sane in comparison, but now it was clear to Winn that there still was something disturbingly off about this place even if it didn’t involve human rag dolls.

The whole plan to impersonate Anton was beginning to feel insane too. Winn knew absolutely nothing about Anton. He had no clue what Anton did for a living or if he even had a job. He didn’t know if that kid was Anton’s neighbor, brother, cousin, or adopted ward.

Winn started pulling open drawers and rifling through them, searching for something, anything that could help him. Maybe he was looking for photos or keepsakes. Maybe he was looking for Anton’s hidden diary.

Soon he found exactly what he was looking for—Anton’s laptop. Winn balanced it in his hands. The weight felt so right in his hands. They had the same model laptop. Winn sat cross legged on his bed—Anton’s bed—and flipped open the laptop. He started typing and winced when he realized that he’d reflexively typed in his own password, effectively wasting a password attempt and putting himself one guess closer to locking himself out of the computer completely. But instead of warning him about an incorrect password, the screen transitioned to Anton’s desktop. They had the same password.

Winn switched to a private browser and googled his name, quickly confirming that Winn Schott did not in fact exist on this Earth. He searched Anton Schott and found a few articles from when Anton graduated from school, as well as Anton’s personal website, which hadn’t been updated in months but which indicated that Anton was open to freelance IT opportunities. And he’d formerly worked at CatCo. There didn’t seem to be much linking Anton to Winslow Schott, which was a nice change of pace from Winn’s Earth and probably stemmed from this Earth’s version of his dad being at least slightly less of an asshole, enough to not name his son after him.

Something vibrated and Winn reached for his phone—Anton’s phone. He hoped that it would be name he recognized, maybe this Earth’s version of one of his friends. Instead, the call was from someone named Axel, and after briefly considering whether that could be this Earth’s version of Alex or even whether Anton was dyslexic, Winn dismissed the call.

Winn typed in his father’s name, but after a moment’s hesitation, deleted it and searched for Chester Dunholtz instead,

The very first result was so troubling, Winn almost snapped the laptop shut at the sight of it. But curiosity overcame the anxiety, and Winn clicked through to the accompanying article. The headline was “Toy magnate Chester Dunholtz shot dead at National City Toy Con.”

Winn closed his eyes. He could almost feel the toy gun in his shaking hands.

When he opened his eyes, he stared at the grainy still image taken from the security footage and recognized his own face. “Killer still at large,” warned the subtitle.

A small voice told him that it always circled back Chester Dunholtz, the man who’d managed to ruin Winn’s family’s lives on multiple Earths.

The cell phone buzzed again, and Winn instinctively checked it. When the name popped up, it was Axel again. He quickly dismissed the call, but this time he noticed the small number next to the name—10 missed calls. Whoever Axel was, he was persistent.

Winn went over to the door that led to the rest of the apartment and placed his ear up against the small space between the door and the door frame. He couldn’t hear anything, but he had a strange feeling that the kid was still out there.

He wasn’t sure if he could stay in the bedroom forever, but he would stay there until he figured out exactly what he needed to do next.

And then someone knocked on the door. It sounded like it was coming for the outside door, so Winn opened the bedroom door and entered the living room just as the kid was opening the door to let in a strange man.

“Axel!” the kid greeted helpfully.

So this was Axel. And he looked angry. He was about Winn’s height but had a manic gleam in his eyes that made him seem more dangerous. That, coupled with the fact that as soon as he saw Winn, he charged forward and grabbed Winn by the throat.

“So, what is it, Schott? You ghosting me?”

Winn shook his head, his squirming doing nothing to get himself free.

Axel released Winn’s throat but grabbed his shoulder and broke into a smile. “I was waiting for you for hours. I looked everywhere! Well, except here. And now I get it! We’re playing a game—” Axel’s smile morphed into something more sinister. “And I’m going to win,” he said in a sing-song voice.

Winn looked behind Axel, but that kid was only watching quietly, and almost blank expression on his face.

“Look at me while I’m talking,” Axel said, grabbing Winn’s chin and redirecting Winn’s gaze. Axel smiled when Winn made eye contact once again. “Are you ready to play?”

Winn nodded, mostly because he wanted Axel to let go and he knew that would be the quickest way. He had no idea what he’d gotten himself into.

“Great!” Axel said, jumping up and down and clapping. “Grab your gear,” he told Winn. “And your sidekick can come with too,” he added, patting the kid on the head.

Winn whipped his head around when Axel said “sidekick”. Was it too much to ask that they were superheroes?

When the kid (Anton’s sidekick?) re-emerged holding a duffle bag that must have contained Anton’s gear, Axel grabbed the bag and ushered Winn all the way to the door. The kid followed close behind.

“Remember,” Axel whispered, “you help me trap the Flash, and I’ll help you take down the Man of Steel.” Axel pulled the strap of the duffle bag over Winn’s head and clapped him on the shoulder.

Winn groaned.

* * *

_Anton - Earth Prime_

On his Earth, it had been a few years since Anton had left National City. The city held too many bad memories for him, and Metropolis represented a fresh start and a new array of targets to satisfy him. Plus, National City was a city without a hero on his Earth, and what kind of supervillain laid claim to superhero-less city. The idea revolted him.

Anton had always thought that Superman was perfect.

Anton found himself walking towards CatCo headquarters, as he always did when he returned to National City for a visit. If there was one constant in the multiverse, it was Cat Grant. He had to see her.

He got up to the correct floor with no problem. People smiled at him, nodded as he walked by. It was so different from the reception he got when he’d last stepped foot inside CatCo, even before the mess with Cat’s son.

“Winn? What are you doing here?” Kara stage-whispered.

Anton had no idea how the whole world didn’t know her identity. She’d told him on the first day she met him—granted, she had no clue he wasn’t Winn. But then again, from the memories the Martian had shared, it seemed she’d told the real Winn the same day she became Supergirl.

You didn’t need super-hearing to overhear the secretive conversations she had.

“Wait, do you still work here on Earth Prime?” Kara asked, grinning. “I’ve missed you so much! That would be perfect.”

“No, I’m just stopping by to visit. Is Cat here?” he asked, stopping short of saying how he needed to see her again.

“Wait, does _Cat_ still work here on Earth Prime?” Kara asked, face brightening even more.

Anton froze. He had miscalculated, making an assumption about this world that seemed so similar to his own, and if he were with a less trusting person, he could have blown his cover completely.

He shook his head. “To be honest, I’m still kind of disoriented from that whole mind-meld memory transfer,” he said. He smiled broadly. “But I’m glad I stopped by since I got to see you!”

“I’m glad too!” Kara replied. She pausing, tapping her pencil against her lips. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”

She pulled over a chair from an adjacent desk and gestured for Winn to take it as he took her own seat.

“I’ve noticed you’ve been avoiding Brainy recently,” Kara explained.

Anton frowned. He still hadn’t gotten all of the names straight.

“No, it’s not that you’ve been doing anything wrong,” Kara said empathetically. “I just want you to know that you and Brainy have more in common than you think—he’s always worried about becoming like Brainiac. And you might think that we don’t need you as much now that Brainy’s on the team, but that’s not true. You both have a lot to bring to the table.” She lowered her voice, “And between you and me, Brainy’s plans and inventions sometimes lack a little bit of something I appreciate the most about you—that human touch.” She smiled sheepishly.

Anton nodded. She must be talking about that know-it-all alien who spent half the time angsting and the other half talking about how smart he was. Anton filed that information away for later. He could use it to his advantage the next time he needed to deal with the alien.

“Thanks, Kara. I appreciate you too,” he said, waving as he exited.

Kara waved back.

As Anton walked back toward Winn’s apartment, he passed a toy store. He wasn’t sure exactly what drew him inside, but as soon as he saw the redheaded boy pulling his mom toward the LEGOs, Anton knew he’d made the right choice. That boy would make the perfect toy.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_Winn - Earth ??_

Axel took them to an abandoned toy factory on the outskirts of Central City. Winn almost laughed, but didn’t want to grab Axel’s attention. It was such a classic villain base, especially for the surprisingly large number of toy-themed villains out there. Winn wouldn’t have been surprised to find his father in a place like this.

“This place is perfect, right?” Axel asked.

Winn nodded, hoping that he was doing at least a passable job of hiding his unease.

“I can’t wait to hear your plan. Where’s the device?” Axel said, leaning forward and pressing into Winn’s personal space.

Winn paled.

“You said you invented something that could stop Flash in his tracks,” Axel spat.

The kid, Anton’s young sidekick, stepped in front of Winn, providing a small barrier to Axel. “Anton was in a car accident yesterday.”

Axel nudged the kid aside easily. “Is little Toyboy brain damaged?” He sang. He switched to a lower voice and added, “Don’t you get it? You help with this and I’ll help you destroy Superman. And I’ll help you catch a little Cat too.”

A cat? Was Anton a huge cat person or something?

The kid tugged on the duffle bag, and Winn relinquished it to him. When the kid produced what appeared to be a small Flash, Winn was thrown for a loop for a second. But then he recognized it. The toy matched a theoretical design he had sketched out years ago, right after meeting Barry Allen, back when Winn was still working at CatCo and had a lot more time on his hands. Admittedly, it had started out as him doodling the Flash—he couldn’t help it, it was such a cool power. But then, Winn had started to think about how absurdly powerful someone with superspeed could be and what it would take to stop them.

He settled on a Flash action figure that would emit a wide force field that would become increasingly smaller and smaller...until... Poof. He hadn’t come up with a good method at all, considering the result was squeezing a person to death. Had Anton made Winn’s design a reality? For a second, Winn held on to hope that Anton had somehow perfected the invention, tweaked it so that it wouldn’t squash anyone. But from the gleeful look on Axel’s face, that was too much to ask.

Axel clapped his hands together. “I love it. It’s perfect.” He plucked the action figure from the kid’s hands and zipped it around in the air, making the action figure run.

Without really thinking, Winn snatched the Flash toy out of the air. It took him a second to register exactly what he’d done, but luckily for him, Axel seemed equally perplexed. But Axel’s confusion quickly turned to anger.

“Give it back,” Axel said, stomping his foot in a show of something between whining and pure fury.

Winn was just glad that Axel had asked instead going straight for the jugular. Winn knew he was not much of an actor and an even worse liar, so he tapped into some very real anger as he said, “No. This is my device, and I’ll be the one to use it.”

Axel huffed, and Winn winced preemptively, expecting a blow to the face, but then Axel smiled.

“Sounds fair. But I get first dibs against Supes then,” Axel said.

“Okay...” Winn responded.

“Let’s get into our gear,” Axel said, spinning on his feet. “I expect Flash to get here any minute now.”

Axel pulled on a colorful leather jacket and then equally color leather pants before adding a bit more oomph to his already spiky hair.

“Our fathers would be so proud,” Axel said, slipping a domino mask over his eyes. “The Flash always underestimated the Trickster.” Axel cackled, his face breaking into a smile that was as creepy as it was wide. “Yeah, dad never did shit, but that’s just ‘cause he never dreamed big enough. This Trickster’s gonna kill the Flash and take over Central City! And Keystone City to boot!”

“Yeah, ha ha,” Winn said, giving a half-assed attempt at evil laughter.

Axel patted Winn on the back. “Now, get a move on. You don’t want Flash to see you wearing that, do you?”

Winn looked down at his outfit—a simple button down shirt, khakis, and a cardigan that offered a splash of color. Winn had the brief thought that Barry would appreciate the simple and understated style, which made Winn realize that he needed to warn Barry, or sabotage the trap, or both.

Anton’s sidekick kid pulled something from the duffle and then tossed the bag over to Winn. The boy disappeared behind an oversized teddy bear whose stuffing was pouring out from a gaping hole in its head. When the boy appeared again, he was one of the rag dolls from Winn’s nightmare that was maybe not a nightmare after all.

If Winn’s luck was any indicator, the boy was probably a rag doll that had been wearing a human flesh mask. But Winn was very much hoping for a human child who was now wearing a rag doll mask.

Maybe the boy was very invested in his character because he didn’t seem to talk while he was a rag doll. He pointed to the duffle bag and mimed pulling something out and putting it over his head. Winn stared for a moment, wondering if he could talk to the boy or if he had to do charades back. He didn’t get a chance to do anything though because the rag doll boy walked over, pulled an object from the bag, and forced it into Winn’s hand.

It felt cool and smooth, like porcelain. Winn turned the object in his hands until it settled face up. Literally. It was a mask made to look like the face of a porcelain doll. Winn couldn’t lie. Even before his father had become a toy-themed mass murderer, Winn had always found porcelain dolls to be creepy as can be. And after his father had gone on his spree, the nightmares had begun. Winn had dreamed of the Dollmaker.

Winn’s hands moved almost reflexively, placing the doll mask over his face.

* * *

_Anton - Earth Prime_

Anton sat at Winn’s kitchen table, and smiled at his new friend.

“You’ll like it here, I think,” he told the redheaded boy.

The boy squealed around his gag. He was tied to the kitchen chair, his arms and legs bound tightly. The boy was afraid, but Anton knew that it would only be temporary. Anton would see to it that the boy was happier than he ever would be with his parents.

“We’ll have so much fun together.”

—

Anton got to the DEO headquarters a half hour early and brushed past Lex Luthor on his way in.

“Good morning, Mr. Schott,” Luthor said, smiling a very calculated smile. Lex Luthor then spun on his heels and strode into his office without so much as a second glance at Anton.

Anton had a feeling Luthor knew.

As he walked over to his desk, he saw Brainiac 5 staring intently, fingers tented.

“Good morning,” Anton greeted.

“Shh,” Brainy said, “I am calculating the likelihood of Alex barging in here within the next thirty minutes and accusing me of betraying the team...at ninety-eight—”

Before he could finish the thought, Alex marched into the room, fury evident in the way she curled her fingers as if she wanted to reach for her gun. “Brainiac 5,” she said, her tone making it sound like a parent speaking their child’s full name, “how dare you.”

Anton wondered if Winn would get involved or let it play out.

Brainy stayed very still as Alex glowered down at him.

“Did you seriously think that helping Lex Luther would be a good idea?” she asked, her voice low and cutting.

Brainy’s face remained impassive as he replied, “I was told by a wiser, smarter Brainy that we needed to accept Lex Luthor‘s help or this world would die.”

This news made Alex pause. “Girl Brainy told you to work with Lex?”

“Yes.”

Alex sighed. “If girl Brainy told you to jump off a bridge would you do it?”

“Perhaps. I could envision some circumstance in which jumping off the bridge would be the logical choice,” Brainy said, a thoughtful look on his face. “For example, if we were being pursued by a pack of—”

Alex cut him off. “Has anyone told you that you are exhausting?”

“Yes. Many people, in fact.”

Anton felt, at this moment, that Brainy was possibly the only one out of everyone in the DEO and perhaps the entire universe who could understand him, and that made Brainy extremely dangerous.

“Alex,” Anton said, putting on his most serious voice, “I don’t know how we can trust him. How can we trust a Brainiac working with Lex Luthor like that?”

Alex nodded sternly. “Brainy, I’m putting you on administrative leave effective immediately.” She grabbed Brainy by the elbow and directed him toward the exit.

As he was guided out, Brainy glanced back at Anton. They made eye contact and Anton put on his best conflicted grimace as Brainy’s impassive mask dropped off and he shot Winn a look of total guilt and sadness. Then, Brainy was gone.

Anton pretended to do work for a little while before Supergirl barged into the headquarters.

“Winn!” she whisper-shouted.

Anton followed her to the balcony, where she paced for a moment before chewing on her lip.

“Winn, did you tell Alex we shouldn’t trust Brainy?” she asked, disappointment seeping through her words.

“Yes,” Anton answered.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Winn helps the Trickster (Axel) trap a speedster. They do trap one... but not the one they wanted.

Chapter 4

_Winn - Earth ??_

As the blur of color bounced around the inside of the force field, struggling to get free, Winn could only think that of course the trap worked. Just by wanting it to fail, he had jinxed it into working perfectly.

He watched, mesmerized by the superspeed movements, as the force field became smaller and smaller. He wondered what this Flash was like, and if the Flash in this universe was Barry, what this Barry was like. As the force field shrank, the speedster’s movements became more restricted until there was barely anywhere to move, and Winn feared if he didn’t act soon, the person inside would be crushed to death.

For his part, Axel was bouncing on the heels of his feet, watching with increasing delight. Finally, he glanced at Winn.

“You can stop it from shrinking now. I want to see what we’ve caught!”

Winn scrambled with the Flash action figure, feeling a rush of fear that Anton wouldn’t have built in that feature. He twisted the head, raised the arms, bent the knees, wishing that he would get lucky and happen upon the kill switch. He felt like he could snap the toy in half, but then something happened, and the force field flashed green and halted in its shrinkage.

The speedster seemed to sense that he was safe—for now—and the blur came into focus as he slowed, revealing a figure in the center of the force field.

It was child in a red and white bodysuit, Blinking up wide-eyed through yellow-tinted goggles.

Axel approached the force field and stuck his head close to the field of energy. “It’s just a kid,” he said, disappointment creeping into his voice. “I wanted the real Flash. You’re not even Kid Flash.”

“Hey! You should be talking, Trickster Junior. And it’s Impulse,” the kid responded.

“Whatever,” Axel said, throwing some exploding jacks in the direction of the kid. They bounced off the force field and ricocheted into a mini-fireworks display overhead. He turned to Winn. “Kids are your thing. You can have him.” Axel waved at the kid trapped inside the force field. “I’m out. And since you didn’t quite hold up your end of our little deal, I’m not exactly going to help you against Superman. Maybe we can team up against Supergirl, definitely no more than Superboy.”

As Axel took his exit, Winn approached the trapped speedster.

Impulse immediately crossed his arms and diverted his gaze away, and Winn was suddenly reminded that he was still wearing the unsettling porcelain doll mask. Pulling the mask off, Winn made what he hoped was a reassuring face at the kid. Dollboy, or whatever the rag doll boy’s name was, lingered behind Winn, staring with his off-putting rag doll face, and Winn resisted the urge to tackle Dollboy and yank the mask off. Instead, he inched sideways to stand between Dollboy and Impulse, blocking Impulse’s view of the creepy kid.

Standing there, Winn was finally able to get a good look at Impulse’s face. The kid had wild brown hair and a slender build. Winn couldn’t see the color of Impulse’s eyes, obscured as they were through the yellow-tinted goggle, but the kid’s eyes and face had a familiar shape, just like...

“Barry?” Winn said.

The kid whipped his head around. The name clearly meant something to him.

Winn lowered his voice until he was certain that Dollboy wouldn’t be able to hear him. “Is your name Barry Allen?”

The kid blinked, the curvature of his goggles making his eyes appear larger.

“No...” the kid said. And as soon as he opened his mouth, it was like the floodgates had opened. “How do you know that name? You’re a supervillain right? You fight Superman right? What’s he like? Is he as strong as they say? I think I might be faster than him, but he’s definitely stronger than me. One time I tried to pick up a car, but it was really heavy. Like so heavy.”

Winn shifted from foot to foot. Realizing that Dollboy was still standing quietly behind him, he sent the Dollmaker’s sidekick to clean up the abandoned toy factory. This would give Winn some alone time with Impulse because the factory was so decidedly disgusting.

“I’m not a villain,” Winn said.

Impulse eyed the porcelain doll mask. Winn had a strong urge to smash it but an equally strong fear that smashing it would only make it look even creepier.

“I can explain,” Winn said, cursing that he would say something so cliche. “I’m going to sound crazy, but I am not the Dollmaker. There are parallel Earths out there, and I’m from one of them. The Dollmaker is my double, but I’m not a villain. On my Earth, I work with Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true.”

Impulse nodded, and then nodded again. “You’re from another Earth?! I’m from the future!”

This caught Winn’s interest. “What year are you from?”

“The 31st century!” Impulse replied. “Home of the Legion of Superheroes. Well...the ones on this Earth.”

“So, you’re not Barry Allen then.”

“No, but I’m named after him. I’m his grandson, Bart Allen.”

“You mean his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great,” Winn said as Bart’s face contorted, “great-great-grandson.”

“No, like his grandson. Like my dad is his son.” Bart shrugged when Winn raised an eyebrow. “Time travel.”

Winn’s eyes lit up. “You can help me! You can use your speed to help me get back to my Earth. The Flash that I met was able to travel through the multiverse.”

Bart’s eyes widened. “You haven’t heard?” Bart grimaced and he shifted in the force field. “There’s no more multiverse. It’s gone. Destroyed. Kaput.” He made a hand gesture like an explosion.

“No,” Winn said. “That can’t be true.”

“It’s true. There was this huge crisis. We study it in school in the future. It’s part of the curriculum. Grandpa sacrificed himself to save us all, but in the end the multiverse was destroyed and like combined into one universe. So everyone here is a composite of all their multiverse counterparts. Maybe something went wrong when you were combined and like your personality survived but with another you’s history.”

“No.” Winn knees gave way and he collapsed to the ground. He stared up at the strange yet familiar kid sitting in the force field above him.

“Hey, on the bright side, at least it wasn’t the supervillain you that was the one to survive,” Bart offered.

Winn’s anger overcame him, and he snapped the Flash action figure in half with a crunch. The force field fizzled away, releasing Bart to land on the floor. Instead of immediately running away, Bart stood there and fiddled with his fingers at superspeed.

“Maybe,” Winn acknowledged, “but it feels like I’ve been dropped into the last ten minutes of a movie. And if my friends don’t know who I am and think I’m a supervillain, that erases everything I’ve worked so hard to build.”

“Your friends don’t know who you are? That sucks.”

“Well, I haven’t actually talked to them yet, so I don’t know for certain,” Winn pondered.

“I can help! I know Supergirl. Okay, I kinda know Supergirl. Okay, so Young Justice teamed up with her this one time and I wasn’t there because I had a chemistry test, but Robin told me about it and it was cool—and I know her cousin-once-removed through cloning, I could totally get you a meeting with Supergirl.”

“Um...” Winn responded, “thanks?”

“One sec,” Bart said. He tapped a finger to his earpiece. “Yo, Kon, I’ve got this dude who’s like a supervillain, but he’s actually not a supervillain because he’s from a different universe that was destroyed when the multiverse went boom or whatever and he needs a meeting with Supergirl for reasons.”

There was a pause that Winn took as the person on the other end responding.

“No, he doesn’t, but he was friends with the Supergirl on his universe.”

Another pause.

“No, I dunno. Let me ask.” Bart turned to Winn. “Was the Supergirl on your Earth named Kara or Karen?”

“Kara,” Winn said. “Why are you asking? What’s going on?” he asked, but Bart had turned away and was talking into the receiver again.

“Okay, thanks anyway, Kon.” Bart turned back to Winn. “Superboy said that Supergirl said the only Dollmaker she knew was a creepy supervillain guy who is super creepy. And she hasn’t heard of Winn Schott or Anton Schott. Although, she has heard of Winslow Schott, who’s the Toyman, and she thinks that they may be related and that hey, maybe the Dollmaker is Winslow Schott’s son—to which I said, I dunno.”

Winn pressed his hands together until he began to lose feeling in his fingertips. “I need to go to the DEO. They can help me.” He frowned. “Does Supergirl work with the DEO on this Earth?”

“I don’t know about that. I don’t think so. The DEO is a bunch of evil jerks. And that Director Bones guy is a total asshole skeleton man. And I heard he hates metas. Or is he a meta?” Bart tapped his chin. “I’m pretty sure he either he hates metas or he is a meta.”

Winn grimaced. It seemed like Impulse was not a great source for answers.

Bart seemed to pick up on Winn’s frustration. “But it’s fine because I got us a meeting with Supergirl. It’s in five minutes in Metropolis, but I can get us there in under five seconds.”

Before Winn had a chance to protest, Bart grabbed him and the world around them disappeared into a blur of superspeed.

They came to a stop on the top of a building overlooking the magnificent skyline of Metropolis, but the world around Winn still seemed to be moving at superspeed.

When Winn finally regained his faculties, a familiar figure landed on the roof next to them—Supergirl. But when she got close enough that Winn could see her face, it was not the Supergirl he remembered. This Supergirl was a sixteen-year-old girl.

“Impulse—is this the Dollmaker?” Supergirl asked.

Bart nodded, nudging Winn forward.

The gears turned in his head as Winn thought about what to say, how to explain what had happened to him. But before he could open his mouth, Supergirl lunged forward and grabbed him by the shirt collar, lifting him well above the ground.

“Carter Grant,” she growled.

It took him a moment to place the name, but once he did, his mouth went completely dry. Of course, Carter Grant—Cat’s son.

“Tell me one thing,” Supergirl said, heat vision flaring red around her eyes, “is he still alive?”


End file.
